Lemon Meringue Pie Murder (Hannah Swensen #4)(95)

Hannah did her best to stay calm and consider her options. There weren't many, but it would take a while for the air to run out and she wasn't dead yet. Banging on the cooler wall wouldn't do any good. It was thick and there was no one around to hear her anyway. Nobody ever came down the alley at night except...

Herb Beeseman! Hannah glanced at her watch. It was ten forty-five and Herb made his rounds at eleven o'clock every night. He wouldn't be able to hear her if he just drove down the alley, but if the alarm in Granny's Attic went off, that would get him out of his squad car.

Hannah did her best to concentrate. She had to make the alarm in Granny's Attic go off. It was rigged to trigger every time the power failed and it shared a circuit with her freezer

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and her cooler. If she could figure out a way to short out that circuit, the alarm would sound and Herb would respond. He'd check Granny's Attic first, but then he'd come into The Cookie Jar. And when he came into her kitchen to check to see that her freezer and cooler were still working, she'd use the metal bowl with the dough she'd just mixed to bang on the cooler door for all she was worth.

How could she short out the circuit? Hannah glanced around her. She couldn't get at any switches, but there was an electrical panel near the floor in the back. She got down on her hands and knees to examine it and started to frown. It was held-in place by screws and she didn't have a screwdriver. She spent precious minutes trying to loosen the screws with her fingernails, but the last repairman who'd come to check the cooler had tightened the screws down much too diligently.

Hannah sat down and sighed. What could a person use for a screwdriver if a person didn't have a screwdriver? She'd once used a table knife, much to the dismay of her fattier who'd caught her doing it, but she didn't have a table knife either. She took a deep breath, let it out again to relax, and that was when she remembered that Rhonda had been stabbed with a knife. Jed had been very anxious to recover that shoebox Freddy had given her and that meant there was something important inside. It had to contain the knife that Jed had used to stab Rhonda!

Hannah stood up to get the shoebox and sat back down to open it. She was chilled to the bone and her fingers were shaking so hard, she could barely untie the twine. When she lifted the lid and unrolled the old rag that was inside, she let out a cry of pure relief. It was a hunting knife, a long one with a sturdy, wicked-looking blade. She was about to grab it when she realized that the handle was metal and it might have fingerprints on it.

This consideration didn't stop Hannah for long. Her situation was growing more desperate by the minute. She grabbed one of the nonskid mats that lined the cooler shelves and

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used it for a glove. Then she leaned forward and began to loosen the screws that held the cover of the electrical panel in place.

It took a few minutes, but at last the cover came off and Hannah stared at the array of wires inside. She could pull them loose, but that might not short out the circuit.

Hannah leaned closer to peer inside the panel. There was a caution sticker on one part, a warning to shut off the power before attempting to replace that part and to use properly insulated tools. Hannah glanced down at the metal blade of the knife. The power was on, and the knife blade wasn't insulated. That made two out of two warnings she would ignore and it ought to do the trick. Unfortunately, the handle of the knife was also metal and she could fry. On the other hand, she was going to die anyway and it was worth a shot, especially if she wrapped the knife handle in the nonskid mat again.

Once that was accomplished, Hannah prepared for action. She had to hurry. Herb would be coming down the alley any minute. She took a split second to decide where to plunge the knife and decided to aim for the red sticker that read "Danger." The cooler light would go out when the circuit blew, so she pushed the mixing bowl right up against the cooler door. Then she turned back to the open panel, took a deep breath, and stabbed.

The moment the tip of the knife blade hit the danger sticker, a huge ball of light knocked Hannah flat on her back. Despite the fact that she was seeing stars, Hannah sat up, crawled to the door, and listened. The alarm was going off next door. She'd done it and she was still alive! Now all she had to do was wait for Herb and bang on the cooler door when he came into her kitchen.

It seemed like forever, crouching there in the dark, but at last Hannah heard the back door open and she banged on the cooler door as hard as she could. A second later, she heard a mumbled expletive and then a shout.

"Hannah? Are you in there?"

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"Yes!" Hannah shouted back at the top of her lungs.

"The handle's padlocked, but I've got bolt cutters in the cruiser. Just sit tight for a minute."

Just sit tight? Hannah started to giggle with a mixture of relief and anxiety. What else could she do but sit tight? She giggled as she heard Herb cutting off the padlock, and she giggled when she heard him open the door. She was still giggling when he pulled her to her feet and gathered her into his arms. Then she remembered about Freddy and her giggles stopped abruptly.

"What happened, Hannah?"

"Later," Hannah said, taking a huge gulp of welcome air. "Do you have a police radio in your patrol car?"

"Sure."

"Get through to the sheriff's department and tell them to post a deputy in Freddy Sawyer's hospital room. He's going to be murdered at midnight. Tell them not to let anyone but Doc Knight in or out until they hear from me."